(NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- The 45th Bi-Annual New Jersey Film Festival will be taking place between September 4 - October 4, 2026. As they have been doing the last few years, the festival will be presented as a hybrid with select in-person screenings at Rutgers University and most of the films available virtually via Video on Demand for 24 hours on their show date. The festival also be offering an Audio-Visual Concert featuring the bands Lawns and Hanging Coats as well as two FREE Filmmaking Workshops.
All the works being screened are part of the New Jersey International Film Festival were selected by a panel of judges including media professionals, journalists, students, and academics. These judges selected the films which will be publicly screened at the Festival. The finalists were selected from over 400 works submitted by filmmakers from around the world. In addition, the judges will choose the Prize Winners in conjunction with the Festival Director. Prize winners will be announced via their social media sites after the screening on October 4, 2026.
Film Premieres: 19 films will have their New Jersey or Area Premiere (Middlesex County) screenings as part of the New Jersey Film Festival. Some of these include: Matthew Kozlark‘s suspenseful feature Your Lips Never Left Mine; Jennifer Chiu’s insightful documentary Clan of the Painted Lady; Anthony Di Mieri’s sweeping anthology of romance and heartbreak Love New York; and Mike Meyer’s The Fright Stuff – a documentary follows the life and times of the haunted attraction industry in the USA.
Martina Casas’s Imprinted -- an intimate journey into the world of choreographer JoAnna Mendl Shaw whose pioneering work with dancers and horses transcends traditional boundaries of movement; and Jeff Mizushima’s The Bond that Broke -- a deeply personal mother-daughter documentary tracing the generational impact of eating disorders.
Other highlights include Korab Uka’s spooky feature The Hanged Man; Keshav Srinivasan spine tingling feature The Flesh People, plus an amazing array of short films, animated films and experimental films by Anne Ciecko, Martin Gerigk, Filip Jacobson, Andrea Otto Longhi, Danny Bourque, Cherly Hsing-Hsin Liu, Lukas Berger, Matt Richey, Andrew Serban, Karla Condado, Elvira Ibragimova and others.
Lawns + Hanging Coats Audio-Visual Concert - The festival continues its concert series with a moving image component as part of our Film Festivals with the hope of reawakening the mostly dormant New Brunswick Music Scene. On September 15, 2023, guitar virtuoso Tim Motzer performed to an experimental film. That was the first true audio-visual concert they put on. Acclaimed singer-songwriter Marissa Nadler also did an amazing concert with her own movie projections on June 15, 2024. Noise-Ambient musician Jim Haynes came from California and did a concert on October 18, 2024 with accompanying projections of experimental films by Marjorie Conrad, Anita LaBelle and Al Nigrin. On February 21, 2025, acclaimed singer-songwriter Renee Maskin did an audio-visual concert to videos created by Al Nigrin. On June 13, 2025, Mike Kovacs did an audio-visual concert with his own films. New Jersey’s Cold Weather Company also did a concert last Fall with their own projections.
Lawns and Hanging Coats are two New Brunswick based bands that are part of the basement show scene. Lawns began as a project that set out to combine all the different kinds of musical influences that the members love. Drawing from rock, jazz, folk, and the avant-garde, Lawns has released 3 singles, with their debut self-titled album releasing in August.
Drawing upon influences from shoegaze, indie rock, R&B, and more, Hanging Coats is a six-piece band formed through late-night jam sessions and friends with a shared passion for the unifying power of music. Through dreamy guitar riffs, addicting synth melodies, and lyrically captivating hooks, Hanging Coats aims to create a soundscape that invigorates the audience with the permission to dance freely, while also giving an outlet for emotional truth beyond conventional norms. Since forming in the spring of 2025, Hanging Coats has become a vibrant part of the New Brunswick music community.
Free Filmmaking Workshops - They are offering two Filmmaking Workshops as part of the Fall 2026 New Jersey Film Festival. These workshops are FREE and open to the public, but they have limited seating and require advance registration. To register for one or all three of these email us at [email protected]. Registration is first come first served. These Workshops will take place on Sunday, September 20, and 27 at 1:00pm in Voorhees Hall #015. They include: 9/20 Intro to Filmmaking (Nigrin) and 9/27 The Film Business: Basic Legal and Business Aspects of Motion Picture Production and Distribution (Schechter). Go here for more info.
Best of the 2026 New Jersey International Film Festival Screenings - The festival will be replaying the winners of this past Summer’s 2026 New Jersey International Film Festival during the Fall Festival! These screenings will be online only for 24 hours on their show date. On Saturday, October 3, they will be screening Best Animation Film Winners Godzilla’s Day Off by Myra Sito Velasquez and 35 Days by Heidi Kumao, Honorable Mention Winners Dustsceawung by Mateus Luna and Sonia and Lisa on Mushrooms – Vincent Turturro. On Sunday, October 4, they will be screening Best Experimental Film Winner Chemical meadows by Nate Dorr, Honorable Mention Winners Salt Marsh by Tom Bell and Meet Me in Silence by Lucy Mathews Heegaard, and Best Documentary Film Winner Greenfield by Rob Herring.
Special Guest Appearances by Directors, Artists, and Actors: One of the best parts of the festival is being able to see and hear from the cast and crew of several films. Confirmed in-person special guest appearances include Matthew Kozlark; Felicia Ricci, Anthony Di Mieri; Martina Casas; Keshav Srinivasan, Korab Uka and many by film directors, producers, and actors to the NJFF! There will also be many virtual Filmmaker Introductions and Q+A Sessions for many of the films.
Tickets: Each General Admission Ticket or Festival Pass purchased is good for both the virtual and the in-person shows when both are offered. The in-person screenings, the filmmaking workshops and the AV Concert will be held in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ beginning at 1:00pm, 5:00pm or 7:00pm on their show date. General Admission Ticket=$15 Per Program; Festival All Access Pass=$100; In-Person Only Student Ticket=$10 Per Program.
Tickets for all of the screenings and the complete schedule is available online.
Sponsors: The New Jersey Film Festival is funded and/or sponsored in part by The Rutgers Film Co-op/New Jersey Media Arts Center; The Rutgers University Program in Cinema Studies/School of Arts and Sciences; Middlesex County, a partner of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts - Funding has been provided by the Middlesex County Board of County Commissioners through a grant award from the Middlesex County Cultural and Arts Trust Fund; The Rutgers University Office of Summer and Winter Sessions; OVID/Icarus Films, The Rutgers University American Studies Department; Rutgers University School of Arts and Sciences Honors Program; The Rutgers University Zimmerli Art Museum; The Rutgers University Writer’s House; The Rutgers University Office of Disability Services, WRSU; New Jersey Stage; The Home News, The Asbury Park Press; New Brunswick City Center; The Rutgers University Office of Community Affairs; Design Ideas; Advanced Printing; Steven C. Schechter, Esq.; Share and Harris.
